Wash Wednesday: Shaving Cream Cleanup

On Saturday I mentioned why we can't have nice things.

Here's another example. I was working on the computer and had put the boys in my bedroom to watch Spongebob and be quiet.

They were quiet. Too quiet. A little TOO quiet. After learning my lesson about quiet kids and marks on the wall I decided to inspect.

I then noticed the smell. The house smelled like a Frat house on a Saturday evening around 6 pm. Cologne...and shaving cream.

Guess what I discovered when I opened the door...

I was greeted with a "Oh HI MOMMY! I wanted to be a sheep!"

Mommy's sheep.

There was shaving cream EVERYWHERE. On the sheets. On the wall. On the TV and the TV stand. On the lightswitch. On the door. On the door knob. In the carpet. EVERYWHERE.

I had to throw them in the bath since they were covered. They lost TV privileges for the day and got talked to when Daddy got home. He informed me that was a brand new container of shaving cream. He had just opened it that morning. I believed it. That was a LOT of shaving cream.

I had to open the windows to get the smell out and it took 10 rags to clean it all up. As for the shaving cream in the carpet, it was impossible to find what to do to clean it up. So here's what worked...

Take a dry rag and pick up as much shaving cream as you can out of the carpet. Then use a wet rag to soak up the shaving cream that has made its way into the carpet fibers. Follow that up with another dry rag to get the moisture up.

The house smelled like shaving cream for days. So again, this is why we can't have nice things and when they're too quiet, they're up to something.

Tip Tuesday: Changing Sheets at Night

Just recently I was at a baby shower for a friend. On the table the hostesses had little advice cards to jot down some words of wisdom to the new mom-to-be. I thought and thought, thinking I can share some of the many things I have learned over the last few years with Judah. My mind unfortunately was blank until I remembered one piece of advice a friend passed onto to me in my early days of motherhood.

This friend in fact sent me a note book of journal entries from each day starting the day she knew I was going to have a baby until Judah's birth date. She provided, in her humorous words, stories of wisdom from her own experiences with two children. And these stories along with much needed advice helped me in my first few months.

So I thought today I would pass on the same advice I gave at the shower regarding avoiding changing sheets during the night. This is just one of the many cool tips my own friend passed onto me.

In my case, if I can minimize the time limit I am up during the night with Judah, then I am more likely to fall back to sleep right away. Will if the kid is sick, you get up, calm them down, check their temperature, become a slop mop for throwing up, change their clothes and sheets, give them some medicine if needed, and perhaps a drink of water before you can lay them back down. The minutes tick by and you realize you still need to clean up yourself. I still have yet to mention that you are already exhausted and may or may not be awake enough to actually get those sheets on right.

So my friend came up with this trick to keep these tasks to a minimum by alternating wet pads and sheets on the mattress before night time when the child is sick. Layering wet pads and sheets allows for you to just take off the top, dirty layer and throw into the laundry. The next clean layer is already to go without having to take the time to put clean sheets on. And you can get back to bed mush sooner without worrying where the next clean sheet is in the drawer.

Be sure to also keep all the dirty items close to the washer for immediate washing, limiting the passing of germs. And try using old towels draped over the pillow as a substitute for vomit buckets for smaller children who throw up anywhere.

Wishing you pleasant slumbers!

Make Monday: Make Money While Spending Money...Sort Of.

On Sunday morning I grabbed the Walgreens flier. I flipped through it and saw the deals. I then grabbed my coupon organizer and the inserts from the Sunday paper.

And I clipped, I wrote, I sorted, I flipped, I tore, I clipped into two separate (and organized) piles. And I presented my shopping plan to my husband, handed him "his" stack of coupons (as he rolled his eyes at me) and we were out the door with the boys.

"We're going to need two carts and keep things separate." Again, another eye-roll. And then the shopping began. And here's how it ended.

We walked out with:

4 packages of M&M's (the big bags)
Cover girl eyeliner and mascara
Two jars of Welch's grape jelly
9 rolls of Angel Soft toilet paper
2 boxes of Tampax Tampons
2 boxes of Always Infinity pads
2 tubes of Crest Complete Toothpaste
2 bottles of Head and Shoulders Shampoo
2 Clinical Strength Secret Deodorant
A Gillette Fusion Pro-Glide Razor
2 Gillette Body Wash
2 Old Spice Body Wash
Gillette Deodorant
Old Spice Deodorant
Gillette Fusion Shave Gel
Gillette Fusion Shave Prep
6 boxes of Cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, Golden Grahams, Cheerios)
1 pack of 15 Cascade duo pack dish wash detergent
3 Tide 15 count Stain Release packs
6 rolls of Charmin
Downy dryer sheets (80) sheets, 1 pack
2 Gain Detergents
Pack of Envelopes
4 12-packs of Dr. Pepper
And One pack of Huggies.

Whew.

Total before coupons and savings? $293.50

After savings? $130.50

Saved $163.00 PLUS I got $24.00 in Walgreens Register Rewards for a future trip. WIN!

So the hour of planning on Sunday morning made me $187.00. Not bad for an hours worth of work. And it's not like I bought things we didn't need. Take the time to plan. It will be worth your while.

Salvation Sunday: Faith!

The concept of faith through an 8Th grader....

"Faith is an attitude of total commitment, reliance, trust and obedience toward God's will for one's life.

In the Old Testament, faith mentioned thirty times, does not refer so much as to a set of doctrines as an outward acceptance of the Law. Instead, faith and righteousness was evident through their lives. Faith in the Old Testament is rather sometimes found in a specific word (s), work commandments of God, God's revelation, or in God, Himself. Confidence in God's faithfulness and a consequent loving obedience to His will distinguishes the Old Testament saints from others.

In comparison, the same attitude is expected in Christians today as the New Testament shows faith described in Hebrews 11. However, unlike the Old Testament, faith appears five hundred times primarily for the reason of "this real act of faith, " believing that Jesus was the promised messiah. For example, Jesus aimed at creating a complete trust in his disciples. He offered Himself as the object in faith necessary for intercession between God and man and eternal life. His primary concern was building that faith in them. To believe meant becoming a Christian as in Ephesians 2:8-9.

Faith is completely trusting in Jesus, the truth of his teachings and His redemptive work accomplished on the cross. As a result, one will submit to Him and His messages. Faith requires reliance, commitment, and obedience to Him as Lord."

Shuffle Saturday: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

You're probably wondering why Shuffle Saturday was posted so late. Well, as my mom said, and I never really understood until I had children. This is why we can't have nice things.

For my birthday, we bought a netbook. It was new. It was fast. It was small enough that I could put it in my diaper bag/purse and take it to school board meetings. It had all of its keys (with small children, it's the small things) And best of all, since I'm a freelance writer, it was a tax deductible birthday present. #Winning!

But that's where the winning ends. Just this weekend, my boys broke MY new toy. They broke the part that plugs in to the computer right off. The little "male" part of the computer was broken off into the "female" part of the computer. "I can handle this," I thought. It would just take some wiggling and I can make it work.

But I couldn't. This was one "do" Mommy couldn't "un-did".

And this is why we can't have nice things.

So we went to Best Buy. I bought a Universal adapter that "would totally work with all netbooks," as the Geek Squad guy said. So sixty bucks later, we were out the door.

Yeah, it didn't. So I took it back and since I paid with my debit card, I was refunded with cash. But I did find my SAME EXACT computer, a floor model on sale for over half of what we paid for my computer brand new just two months ago.

And I thought and thought and thought. With the money I was refunded, plus a gift card I was given for my birthday PLUS a gift card my husband was given...that should come close to covering the cost for that computer. I would get a plug in that worked and my husband would get a computer with all of its keys and that wasn't super slow (we bought that laptop just before he went to Iraq...two kids ago). Yeah, that's a no brainer for me.

So we now have to brand new computers. And we're sharing a power source. But if you're looking for a "this is why we really can't have nice things" post. Stay tuned. Wash Wednesday is going to be a winner.